Bringing employees who have been injured back to work and accommodating needs caused by the injury rank high on retailers’ lists of human resources concerns. Recent developments — changes in federal and state laws among them — have added complexity and the stakes are high: In the last decade, consent decrees and EEOC lawsuit settlements have run into the tens of millions.

The winner of 2017’s Digital Commerce Startup of the Year competition at NRF’s annual Shop.org conference, DynamicAction offers a retail analytics system built to enable ecommerce, store and omnichannel teams to take quick action through metrics, automated diagnostics, analytics and visualizations. It also alerts retail teams to areas of opportunity and improvement.

By leveraging Social AssessmentTM, a modern framework for feedback, you can start preparing the retail employees of tomorrow, today. Allow employees to improve their soft-skills over time and in an environment that doesn’t jeopardize your customer experience.

DRNK coffee + tea and Qwench juice bar were created particularly to serve Millennials who crave quality food and restaurants with an exciting vibrant energy. The intent is “to serve people who expect higher quality with the traditional speed of service their life demands,” says vice president and chief marketing officer Mitch Baker.

NRF is proud to provide our members with the online Retail Buying Guide to search for trusted vendors, products and services in the retail industry. Our guide is a user-friendly forum designed to bring suppliers and purchasers together. You can search by keyword, location, company name or category. Available whenever you need it, the Retail Buying Guide makes it easy to locate products and professional services geared to the retail industry. Click here to visit the online Retail Buying Guide! To advertise, please contact Sarah Allen for more information.

Committed to being the first beer on Mars, Budweiser sent two experiments to the International Space Station in December. The beer company is working with the nonprofit Center for Advancement of Science in Space and payload development company Space Tango to understand how its ingredients react in microgravity environments.

Domino’s has begun an online baby registry, complete with items like a “Hormonal and Hangry – the Struggle is Real” offering, babywear with phrases like “homeslice” and “oven baked” and shirts for parents-to-be that read “Pizza for two, please.”

According to NRF, Easter spending is expected to total $18.2 billion this year, which is the second-highest level on record. About eight in 10 Americans will celebrate and spend an average of $150 per person.

Some of the largest brands in retail have sent a letter to President Trump outlining their concerns about the detrimental impact broadly applied tariffs on products from China could have on American families.

Digital Transformation improves operations and enhances customer experiences but building the right foundation is a key first step. Solutions from Fortinet and Hughes provide secure connectivity and help drive innovation within your distributed enterprise.

After serving urban communities for more than 20 years, plus-size fashion retailer Ashley Stewart was on the brink of closing in 2013. In this week’s episode of NRF’s Retail Gets Real podcast, Ashley Stewart CEO James Rhee discusses his value-based leadership style and how his passion helped save the company.

Retail Deals

Athletic retailer The Finish Line, Inc. has entered into a merger agreement providing for JD Sports Fashion Plc to acquire 100 percent of the issued and outstanding Finish Line shares at a price of $13.50 per share in cash representing an aggregate deal value of approximately $558 million. JD is the leading European retailer of sports, fashion and outdoor brands.

Bodega Latina Corporation, doing business as “El Super”, a leading U.S. Hispanic grocer and a subsidiary of Grupo Comercial Chedraui, S.A.B. DE C.V., has agreed to acquire Fiesta Mart, L.L.C. Fiesta, a portfolio company of ACON Investments, L.L.C., is a Texas-based international food retailer with an emphasis on the Hispanic segment operating 63 stores primarily in the Dallas and Houston areas.

Checkpoint Systems, a leading global supplier of Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS), RFID solutions and Alpha High-Theft Solutions for the retail industry, and IMCo, a Germany-based global leader in smart shelf technology offering innovative loss prevention solutions to help retailers combat organized retail crime, announced an agreement under which Checkpoint will resell select IMCo products in North America.

Punchhannounced a brand new product for their industry-leading Restaurant Marketing Cloud platform, called “Punchh Acquire,” designed to address one of the most critical and difficult marketing needs of any restaurant: new customer acquisition. With the launch of the Punchh Acquire Beta, Punchh becomes the only unified marketing platform for both customer acquisition and customer lifetime value growth.

CLEAR, the company building a connected world that’s smarter and more secure through its biometric identity platform, announced a major nationwide sports expansion with the launch of three new Major League Baseball stadiums. New stadiums added to the CLEAR network for the 2018 MLB season include SunTrust Park, home to the Atlanta Braves; Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, home to the Oakland Athletics; and Safeco Field, home to the Seattle Mariners. CLEAR’s platform is now used by 11 professional sports teams within MLB, the NBA and MLS to make live events safer while providing a frictionless and customized fan experience.

NIKE, Inc.has acquired Zodiac Inc., a leading consumer data analytics firm based in New York City and Philadelphia, as it accelerates its Consumer Direct Offense strategy to serve consumers faster and more personally at scale.

Sierra Wireless, the leading provider of fully integrated device-to-cloud solutions for the Internet of Things, announced that International Vending Alliance, the largest global network with 1.9 million vending machines in more than 70 countries, has selected Sierra Wireless’ Smart SIM and AirVantage IoT Platform to revolutionize vending service delivery

Crocs, Inc., a global leader in innovative casual footwear for women, men and children, has kicked off the second year of its “Come As You Are” global marketing campaign. For 2018, “Come As You Are” transitions from an invitation to all one-of-a-kinds to a celebration of uniqueness and individuality, encouraging everyone to be comfortable in their own shoes. The campaign is led by a feature film-inspired musical starring a singing and dancing Drew Barrymore, with versions featuring the brand’s global celebrity cast.

Pottery Barn Kids, the premier specialty retailer for children’s home furnishings and decorative accessories, and a member of the Williams-Sonoma, Inc. portfolio of brands, will begin wholesale operations in the UK with three Pottery Barn Kids branded shop-in-shops at John Lewis, the UK’s largest department store retailer. The shop-in-shops will open this autumn at John Lewis shops in the Oxford Street, Peter Jones and Stratford City locations and will feature an assortment of furniture and accessories for baby and nursery. Pottery Barn Kids will also launch a dedicated ecommerce website, potterybarnkids.co.uk.

FKI Security Group delivers a broad array of security products with best-in-class service and support for businesses. They successfully operate in over 80 countries around the world, delivering products and services focused solely on protecting customers' assets, people, and vital information. The FKI Security Group brands Summit, Ascent, and NKL Cash-Management Solutions lead the market. But FireKing does even more, including being a provider of extensive office and consumer products.